From housewife to porn actress at 70 years old: an outlet for older women in Japan

TokyoAt 75 years old, Miyoko Seto is not considering retiring. “I would like to be able to continue working until I am 80,” explains this Japanese adult film actress, who debuted in the industry at 70, after spending decades dedicated to her family. Until then, she had been a housewife, but when she tried to find work after her second divorce, she encountered a barrier that closed doors on her even before she could submit her application: age. According to what she explained in an interview published in October by a local magazine, the companies she called rejected her as soon as she told them how old she was.

Seto married at 24 and had two daughters. After divorcing at 34, she raised them alone. She remarried at 45 and, for nearly two decades, she also took on the care of her second husband's children and her mother-in-law. When that marriage ended, approximately ten years ago, she found herself without a professional background to facilitate her re-entry into the labor market. The pandemic worsened the difficulties, and for a period, she depended financially on her daughter.

At 70, she decided to look for paid work, but the places where she applied did not accept her. After a marriage of more than twenty years without intimacy and almost three decades without sexual relations, Seto saw the new stage as an opportunity to recover her sex life.

Her entry into adult cinema came after a conversation with her daughter in an izakaya, a Japanese tavern. Some time earlier, Seto had already received a proposal to participate in a pornographic production, but she had rejected it. This time, when she talked about it with her daughter, the response was different: she suggested she consider it. Seto contacted an agency specializing in mature actresses and formalized the contract that same day. In four years, she has participated in 17 productions. “Now is when I feel happiest,” she assures.

Shoots are not Seto's only paid activity. Besides working as an adult film actress, she also works at a sexual services establishment specialized in mature women. She lives with her daughter, with whom she shares the rent, and has started saving to travel. Even so, she admits that her income does not yet guarantee her a financially secure retirement.

The case of Seto is part of a segment of Japanese adult cinema known as silver porn, starring elderly performers. The industry has found an audience in a rapidly aging society where older people continue to have significant weight as consumers. In 2024, The Guardian placed the global Japanese adult video market at about 55 billion yen annually, around 310 million euros, with nearly 10,000 performers.

A question of demography

The demographic context helps to understand the interest in this type of production, but there is also the labor issue. In 2025, people aged 65 or over accounted for 29.4% of the Japanese population, the highest percentage recorded until then. According to Japanese government data, that same year 46% of women between 65 and 69 years old and 29% of those between 70 and 74 years old were working. Among employed women aged 65 to 69 who were working as employees, 83.7% held non-regular jobs, a category that includes temporary contracts and part-time work.

Japanese government surveys indicate that older women cite domestic responsibilities and caring for family members as obstacles to accessing paid employment. This does not mean that entering the adult film industry is always a response to an economic need, nor that all performers experience their work in the same way. Seto's story does not reveal how many older women resort to the pornographic industry out of economic necessity. It does, however, highlight the difficulties a woman may face reaching age 70 after decades dedicated to her family and without a professional trajectory that would facilitate her access to other jobs.